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A Building Classification System for Multi-hazard Risk Assessment
Peer-reviewed
A uniform and comprehensive classification
system, often referred to as taxonomy, is fundamental for
the characterization of building portfolios for natural hazard risk assessment. A building taxonomy characterizes
assets according to attributes that can influence the likelihood of damage due to the effects of natural hazards.
Within the scope of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM)
initiative, a building taxonomy (GEM Building Taxonomy
V2.0) was developed with the goal of classifying buildings
according to their seismic vulnerability. This taxonomy
contained 13 building attributes, including the main
material of construction, lateral load-resisting system, date
of construction and number of stories. Since its release in
2012, the taxonomy has been used by hundreds of experts
working on exposure and risk modeling efforts. These
applications allowed the identification of several limitations, which led to the improvement and expansion of this
taxonomy into a new classification system compatible with
multi-hazard risk assessment. This expanded taxonomy
(named GED4ALL) includes more attributes and several
details relevant for buildings exposed to natural hazards
beyond earthquakes. GED4ALL has been applied in several international initiatives, enabling the identification of
the most common building classes in the world, and
facilitating compatibility between exposure models and
databases of vulnerability and damage databases.
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